CLASSIC TRACKS
“Two more of these and I’ll be dead,” he said. Christmas Village Hut, August 1995 - my brother’s 25th. I thought he meant tequila but he was riffing off the Bible’s three score and ten allotted years. Another quote: “Quantity is a flavour.” This after a smaller-than-usual gunge-fest serving. Two days in and we were rationing. We had nursed an old Austin 1300 to Bluff and ferried across.
Bitten once, I was not shy. I did the circuit again, on my own this time, in June 1996.
The 2023 crew featured my friend Craig, who was also on the 1995 trip, and my teenage sons Henry and Matti. We had learnt the flight from Invercargill to Mason Bay takes 20min but a westerly front came through and we had to go around rather than over the island. Our pilot scanned the beach for kelp before putting the Britten Norman Islander down an hour’s walk south of Homestead Hunters Hut at Te Oneroa (Mason Bay). I had traded off weight vs hunger, yet we were laden.
The first two days were the longest - seven hours each. We were on the beach beforebigger Hellfire Beach.
